


Junta - The Mistake

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1532]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Abby and McGee discover a secret room where they can overhear what is said in the director's office. What will happen when they find out about Director Shepard offering Rota to Tony? Will McGee come clean about the secret room?
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1532]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25
Collections: 2020 Twelve Days of Christmas, The Writer's Guild Community





	Junta - The Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 07/11/2003 for the word [junta](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/07/11/junta).
> 
> junta[ hoo n-tuh, juhn‐, huhn‐ ]  
> noun  
> a small group ruling a country, especially immediately after a coup d'état and before a legally constituted government has been instituted.  
> a council.  
> a deliberative or administrative council, especially in Spain and Latin America.  
> junto.
> 
> This is for Day 7 of the Twelve Days of Christmas challenge. Today's prompt is Family Dinner.

“Can you believe that Tony is going to Rota, Spain?” Abby asked

“Is it official?” McGee wondered.

“Not yet. He still has to accept,” Abby admitted.

“He won’t accept.” McGee’s tone was level. He was absolutely positive that there was no way that Tony would take a job in Rota, Spain.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Abby mused.

“What do you know?”

“Just that there’s more going on with this Rota, Spain offer behind the scenes than you think.”

“Abby,” McGee warned, “What have you heard?”

“I can’t tell. Don’t ask me.”

“Abby. You can’t keep secrets from me.”

“Tim, don’t ask. I’m begging you.” Abby turned pleading eyes on McGee.

“Abby. You have to tell me. This affects me too.”

“Please Tim. I promised. You’ll find out eventually. Don’t ask anymore of me.”

“Abby,” Tim pleaded.

Abby stomped her foot. “No, Tim. I’m not telling you this. Get out of my lab, now,” she screeched.

Tim frowned. It wasn’t like Abby not to tell him something. He couldn’t help wondering what secret she was keeping. 

She mentioned that there was more to Rota than Tim knew. Maybe he could dig up whatever secret she was keeping on his own. He couldn’t help wondering who had sworn her to silence that she was actually keeping the secret this time instead of blurting it out accidentally like usually happened.

He dug into the Rota assignment that Director Shepard had offered Tony. He couldn’t see Tony taking the assignment not now that they finally had Gibbs back. Not now that the team could go back to normal. Tony would never do that to them. 

He couldn’t let what Abby said go, however. He had to know what she was hiding. He had to know what she’d found out that she couldn’t share. 

It was almost Christmas and the team had planned to do a Christmas dinner together on their one day off for Christmas this year. Tim wanted to know if Tony was leaving them before this dinner. It would change everything if this was their last get together with Tony. 

He considered just straight up asking Tony, but then Tony would want to know how they knew about the offer of Rota which was supposed to be a secret. McGee couldn’t explain how they knew without bringing to light things that he didn’t want anyone to know. There was a secret room that no one knew about that allowed them to hear what went on in the director’s office.

Abby and McGee had discovered it one day and they’d used it to listen in on secret conversations multiple times since then. That’s how they’d heard Jenny offering Rota to Tony and him swearing her to secrecy. They didn’t listen very often or at least McGee didn’t.

With Gibbs back he hardly had any time to listen. Abby, on the other hand, could still listen whenever she wanted. Though McGee couldn’t help wondering if this time she’d got the information directly from someone. Why else would she be refusing to tell him what she’d found out?

McGee pulled up the information on Rota again and cross referenced it with Tony’s background. At first, nothing stood out, but then McGee noticed that the other people running Rota for NCIS were all friends of Tony. Maybe he would accept. 

McGee didn’t know what to think now. He wanted to confront Tony and find out the truth, but then everything would come out and Abby would kill him. He wished that the junta of NCIS Rota weren’t all friends of Tony. He knew that this would be open and shut if Tony had no friends in Rota. 

Now, McGee worried that more things were changing. He’d thought things were back to normal, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Now, he didn’t know what to think. 

He couldn’t imagine the team without Tony. He didn’t know that Ziva and he could really handle Gibbs’ temper without Tony there to help out. Somehow he needed to make sure that Tony wouldn’t go to Rota during this Christmas dinner. McGee just wished he knew how. 

He didn’t have much time. There were only a few days before Christmas. McGee needed more information before the Christmas Dinner rolled around.

They were a family. It was bad enough when Gibbs left, but Tony was literally the backbone that held them together. McGee couldn’t imagine Tony not being part of the team.

He wasn’t proud of how he acted when Tony was acting team lead. He knew Tony deserved to lead his own team, but he couldn’t handle the idea of Tony leaving the team. He regretted the way he treated Tony while Gibbs was gone. He could see now that instead of supporting Tony and encouraging him to stay on as SFA, he probably drove him away further.

He needed to apologize to Tony. He needed to make him see that leaving wasn’t necessary. That it would be better for him to stay with the family.

McGee didn’t know how to dig himself out of this one. Maybe it was time to talk to Tony. Maybe it was time to be completely honest with him.

He wished he knew if Tony was seriously considering Rota. He felt so bad about how he’d treated Tony while Gibbs was gone. At the same time, he couldn’t believe that Tony was just going along with the director’s seduction of Miss Benoit. 

Gibbs needed to know what Tony and Director Shepard were up to. Yet, McGee wasn’t supposed to have this information. He couldn’t see a way out of this that wouldn’t result in him getting in trouble. 

He’d made the wrong calls all the way down the line. They should have come forward about the security risk when they’d first discovered it. He hated being left out. Ever since he was a kid, he’d always been on the sidelines the nerd who didn’t fit in. 

He’d never been bullied, but he’d also never been included. He hated secrets. He’d thought that this secret room would prevent him from ever being excluded again.

It didn’t help that Sarah showed up last night thinking that she might have killed someone. Now he really was between a rock and a hard place. If he came clean to Gibbs or Tony, it would look bad for Sarah.

He only had one choice. He had to prove Sarah’s innocence before Christmas dinner, before Tony left, before he came clean. He only hoped that he would have time to come clean after he proved her innocence. His conscience couldn’t take the stress much longer.

He drove Sarah to her school where she said the murder may have taken place. Of course, he immediately spotted Tony and Ziva. What were they doing here?

Now, he really needed to keep things on the downlow until he knew why Tony and Ziva were here. Were they investigating the murder that Sarah thought she might have committed? Tim felt torn. Sarah was his sister, but the team was his family in ways that no one else in his family, with the exception of Sarah, were.

He couldn’t shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that everything was about to go horribly wrong. Maybe it was Abby’s warning that Tony might take Rota. Maybe it was the fact that his sister was caught up in a murder case the team was investigating. Maybe it was the secret room that he and Abby had used to spy on Director Shepard and Tony.

Needless to say he couldn’t keep the team from finding out about Sarah’s involvement and it all exploded in his face. Gibbs demanded, “Why didn’t you trust me? Why didn’t you come to me?”

McGee stuttered something out. He honestly didn’t know what he said. He was so turned around by all the things he was involved with that he couldn’t figure out what to do or say.

Fortunately, they were able to prove that his sister wasn’t involved. Unfortunately, he lost Gibbs’ trust. How was he supposed to bring up Miss Benoit and the secret room now?

It was the day before Christmas dinner now and McGee was freaking out. He’d gone down to Abby’s lab in an attempt to find some peace and hide his freakout from the rest of the team. “Do you still think Tony is considering Rota, Abby?”

Abby shrugged. “Still nothing official.”

“What’s he waiting for?”

“Well, he has been busy with the case.”

Tim paced the lab. He didn’t know what to think. “Abby we need to come clean about the room.”

“No, Tim. You can’t tell anyone. Do you have any idea how much trouble we’ll be in if you tell?”

“I can’t keep this a secret anymore, Abs. It’s going to come out eventually and when they find out we knew and didn’t tell we’ll be in even more trouble.”

“So what you’re just going to pretend you stumbled upon the room?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t figured out what to do, yet.”

“Don’t do it, Tim. Think about me, if you won’t do it for yourself.”

“It’s not right to continue to keep this a secret.”

“And what about the rest of it?”

“We need to come clean about that too. We could lose Tony if we don’t do this, Abby.”

Abby huffed. “I’m working on that.”

“On what?” Tim wrinkled his forehead.

“On getting Tony to stay.”

“What are you thinking, Abs?”

“Look if Tony stays there’s no reason we have to tell any of this, right?”

“Abby,” Tim warned. 

“What?” She stamped her foot and glared.

“What we did is illegal. We need to come clean now.”

“We could both lose our jobs. Does that mean nothing to you, Tim?”

“We shouldn’t keep our jobs if it means we’re withholding information that could be detrimental to NCIS as a whole.”

“McGee!!” Abby protested.

“It has to be done, Abby.”

“I’ll never talk to you again.”

Tim sighed and shook his head as he left her lab. It hadn’t made it any easier for him to figure out what he needed to do. He had barely made it back upstairs when Tony cornered him.

“What the hell is going on with you, McGee?”

“Tony?”

“You’ve been off ever since Gibbs left. I thought you’d go back to normal once he came back, but you’re even more off now. What is the matter with you?”

McGee looked away. He didn’t know what to say. 

“McGee?”

“Not here.”

“Christmas dinner?”

“Fine.”

McGee tried to seem normal for the rest of the day. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally allowed to go home or more accurately head over to Ducky’s for the team Christmas dinner. McGee grabbed his gear and the gifts for the team and left with the rest of them.

As soon as he arrived, Tony dragged him to an empty room. “Now talk, Tim.”

“I’m sorry,” Tim blurted.

“For what?”

“For the way I treated you while Gibbs was in Mexico.”

Tony wrinkled his forehead. “Why are you saying this now?”

“I made a mistake.”

“What are you talking about, Tim?”

“I should have backed you. Don’t leave us.”

“Leave you?”

“We heard about Rota, Tony. Please don’t leave. I’m sorry for how I behaved. Please stay.”

Tony’s mouth shut with a snap. “How did you hear about that?”

McGee frowned. “This is the really bad part.”

“McGee. What did you do?” Tony demanded.

“So there’s a room where you can hear everything that goes on in the director’s office. One time I was in it and heard you and Jenny talking about Rota.”

“Oh McGee,” Tony sighed. “I’m not sure I can protect you this time.”

“Protect me? From what?”

“From consequences, I didn’t write you and Ziva up while Gibbs was gone because I was protecting you, but this is too much, McGee. Gibbs is going to have to be told.”

“Can’t it wait, Tony? It’s Christmas.”

“Fine. We’ll tell him, tomorrow. Together, McGee.” 

“Of course. Thanks Tony.”

“What else is family for?” Tony patted McGee on the shoulder and indicated for him to go in first.

McGee nodded and they returned to the dinner table. McGee didn’t look forward to tomorrow, but at least he had one more day with his family before he had to worry about the consequences of his mistakes.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> The 2020 Prompts are open now! Go forth and prompt me! [Click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2020/profile) to add your prompts to my 2020 Prompt Collection. Just click the sign up link. ;) I'm hoping to complete all the 2020 prompts by the end of 2021. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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